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Publications

Publications by CESE

2021

From Digital Platforms to Ecosystems: A Review of Horizon 2020 Platform Projects

Authors
Silva, HD; Soares, AL;

Publication
BOOSTING COLLABORATIVE NETWORKS 4.0: 21ST IFIP WG 5.5 WORKING CONFERENCE ON VIRTUAL ENTERPRISES, PRO-VE 2020

Abstract
Digital platforms have, in the past decades, undergone a revolution, evolving from its technical roots so much that nowadays value is mostly generated, not by the technologies that power platforms, but by the ecosystem of applications, developers and users it is able to generate and support. In this paper, we seek to understand the importance industrial platform owners place on the community building and platform growth components of the platform development process by reviewing 50 Horizon 2020 financed projects that stand on the development of platforms. This evidence is leveraged for the case of a validation strategy definition for a platform ecosystem aiming at sharing production capacity. Key findings point to platform developing practices focused on the development of technical components to the detriment of the ecosystem generation element. We also shed light on how different business models and funding schemes impacted the steering of these platforms.

2021

Immersive Systems in Human-Centered Manufacturing: The Informational Dimension

Authors
Ramalho, FR; Soares, AL; Almeida, AH;

Publication
BOOSTING COLLABORATIVE NETWORKS 4.0: 21ST IFIP WG 5.5 WORKING CONFERENCE ON VIRTUAL ENTERPRISES, PRO-VE 2020

Abstract
The rise of smart manufacturing environments, characterized by high quantity of data/information available, contributes to a growing interest and research towards the use of immersive technologies not only in factories but also across entire value chains. New immersive technologies and devices are being developed to improve cooperation within Collaborative Networks (CNs), especially in the human-machine hybrid networks context. The application of these technologies in such complex environments expands substantially the modes how information is delivered and used, which may exacerbate one of the oldest problems of cognitive ergonomics: information overload. Therefore, this work presents applications of immersive technologies in manufacturing into the perspective of "information work" and "immersive human-centered manufacturing systems". A framework is proposed to be developed in a FabLab to understand the worker needs and interactions. This FabLab aims to demonstrate the potential/real application of immersive technologies, towards the enhancement of the human worker cognitive capabilities.

2021

Challenges in Managing Large-Scale Collaborative R&D Projects

Authors
Simões, AC; Rodrigues, JC; Soares, AL;

Publication
Contributions to Management Science

Abstract
Project management is a critical success factor for any kind of project. When projects involve complex multi-organisational structures, requiring demanding collaborative processes, project management is a complex system in itself. Although this topic has been studied for decades, the ever-changing morphology of projects induced by the increasingly intricate financing schemes, call for a frequent and updated understanding of how the projects initiate, run, and close. Large-scale integrated collaborative projects are a recent example of complex collaborative projects that were not studied yet but can provide important insights for the project and innovation management fields. These projects are carried out typically by a large consortium including research organisations, sectorial technological centres, technology providers and end-user companies, having a significant impact on the technological innovation produced for a specific sector. This chapter reports a multiple case study of four large-scale integrated projects, in Portugal, following an inductive research design. The results showed that collaboration creation and collaboration management are crucial processes for such projects, with challenges intensified by the differences in goals and expectations of researchers and practitioners. The chapter will hopefully contribute to the future development of new models, tools and techniques that will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of this type of projects, by providing a systematisation of the challenges faced and how they were overcome during the cases analysed. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

2021

The Digital Twin as a Knowledge-Based Engineering Enabler for Product Development

Authors
Azevedo, M; Tavares, S; Soares, AL;

Publication
BOOSTING COLLABORATIVE NETWORKS 4.0: 21ST IFIP WG 5.5 WORKING CONFERENCE ON VIRTUAL ENTERPRISES, PRO-VE 2020

Abstract
Industry 4.0 encompasses technologies that generate valuable insights from large data exchange networks. This, along with the growing digitalization of organizational information and knowledge, turns these assets into a valuable resource for product and process improvement and optimization. In this context, Knowledge-based Engineering (KBE) is presented as a way to efficiently capture and reuse organizational knowledge. As such, this work conceptualizes the Digital Twin, emerging technology as a KBE enabling application that employs organizational knowledge as the driving force behind product development. To this end, power transformer development is used as a case study.

2021

A Vision for a Platform-based Digital-Twin Ecosystem

Authors
Silva, HD; Azevedo, M; Soares, AL;

Publication
IFAC PAPERSONLINE

Abstract
The widespread adoption of digital technology tied with the 4th industrial revolution means the complete reinvention of how business is done. Digital Twin (DT) technologies are now a key technology trend that is already being developed and commercialized to optimize numerous manufacturing processes. In this paper, and from an Information Systems (IS) discipline viewpoint, we take stock of the different technological visions of the DT in manufacturing. We leverage this summary as a stepping stone for discussing the DT's sociotechnical design implications by pointing how this approach is essential for the design of DT software that is specific to its environment and users and co-evolves with it. Furthermore, we present our vision for a DT-based Digital Platform that can support product design and life-cycle management while generating value through an ecosystem of twin-driven product-service systems. Lastly, we show how the Transformer 4.0 project will demonstrate the main principle of our vision by placing the DT of the power transformer with the dual role of virtual counterpart of the physical product and as the architectural framework for (i) managing and processing the historical data collected from the multiple working instances of DTs, and (ii) managing and integrating design information (models, specifications, design data, among others). Copyright (C) 2021 The Authors.

2021

Digital Platforms as Enablers of Smart Product-Service Systems

Authors
Silva, H; Soares, AL;

Publication
SMART AND SUSTAINABLE COLLABORATIVE NETWORKS 4.0 (PRO-VE 2021)

Abstract
The impact of digital technologies in manufacturing organizations has been felt for decades. Servitization processes themselves have developed from the traditional Product-Service Systems (PSS) toward new business models infused with digital technologies, paving the way to smart PSS. There is, however, a lack of understanding of how digital platforms (DP) can be leveraged for the offering of smart service offerings. In this paper, we highlight how the emergence of DP traces the evolution of PSS and highlight how a platform-based modular architecture can serve as the reference infrastructure for organizations to deliver smart and highly customized products and services. The architecture of the Transformer 4.0 platform is used to demonstrate how DP can serve as orchestrators for an ecosystem of digital twin-driven smart PSS.

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